Halloween Scene: Slither (2006)

One of the reasons watchingZombie Holocaust made me so mad was because I was focusing on it instead of watching the excellent Slither which I had seen years ago when I lived with my pal Rickey Purdin (of DC Comics and VHS Notebook fame). But, aside from the basic plot, a few key scenes and the inclusion of Jenna Fischer, I had forgotten almost everything about this movie, including the fact that faves Elizabeth Banks, Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker starred.

Anyway, after finishing that crapfest, I turned the Xbox on and finished Slither. Holy crap, you guys, this is such a great movie. I put it up there with Trick ‘r Treat as one of my favorite horror movies from the last 1o years. The beauty of this film is that it includes so many different horror elements and does them all well. You’ve got the Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing, the small town thing, the “this could spread to the whole world” thing, the zombie thing, the gore thing, the pretty-good-CGI thing, the funny thing, it has ALL THE THINGS.

If you haven’t seen the movie — and you really should, it’s fan-effing-tastic — these alien creatures wind up in a small town and start taking over the population. Because they take over Rooker first and he loves Banks, everyone who gets infected and becomes part of the hive mind, they all love her and bring her to Rooker who has turned into…something else. It’s just such a cool idea that feels familiar enough that doens’t need a ton of info to get into, but also feels fresh. That’s pretty much the way this whole movie feels. Meanwhile, Fillion plays the sheriff who’s doing his best to stop the invasion and just survive this ordeal.

Unfortunately, I had to watch this movie mostly with subtitles — which I didn’t even know you could do on Netflix Instant until the other day. This worked out so I could continue to understand the movie while I watched it either at night or while Lu took naps. The problem though is that I really missed hearing Banks and Fillion give their dialog. Those two are such good, funny actors and bring both elements to this film which might seem funny, but is definitely taken seriously. We need more movies like this, dammit!